The five compared
Everything we sell comes off tree surgery work across Dorset, so the species mix is whatever the county grows – which happens to be an excellent list for firewood. These are the five you will find in a load of our seasoned mixed, and four of them we also sell on their own.
| Species | Heat | Burn time | Lights from cold | Spits? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ash | High | Long | Easily | Barely |
| Oak | Highest | Longest | Slowly | No |
| Beech | High | Long | Well | No |
| Birch | Medium | Short | Very easily | Slight |
| Sycamore | Medium | Medium | Well | No |
A word on the numbers below: these are relative judgements from burning the stuff, not laboratory figures. Once wood is properly dry, the differences between hardwood species are much smaller than the internet suggests – and much smaller than the difference between dry wood and wet wood of any species.
What is in a hardwood mix?
Five trees make up most of what our crews bring in. They do not all burn the same, which is why a mix works: something that lights easily, something that lasts. Tap a log to split it open.
Ash The all-rounder.
Lights easily, burns steadily and barely spits. If you only ever burned one wood, this would be it.
Oak The slow burner.
Very dense, so it is slow to catch and slow to burn. Put it on an established fire and it will hold heat for hours.
Beech Hot and bright.
A dense wood that burns hot with a bright flame and leaves a good bed of embers.
Sycamore The easy one.
Catches readily and gives a good flame. It burns a little quicker, which makes it useful for getting a fire up to heat.
Birch The fire starter.
The papery bark is full of natural oils, so birch lights fast and burns bright. Use it to get going, then add something slower.
Why hardwood? It is denser than softwood, so each log holds more heat and burns for longer. Softwood vs hardwood · Which wood burns best?
Ash
- Heat9/10
- Burn time8/10
- Lights easily9/10
- Behaves itself10/10
If you could only have one, this is it, and it is not close. Ash is dense enough to give real heat and a long burn, splits beautifully, lights from cold more readily than any other hardwood we sell, and has so little resin that it barely spits at all.
It also has the useful property of burning acceptably at higher moisture than most species, which is why the old country saying about burning it green persists. Do not take that as permission – it is far better seasoned – but it explains the reputation.
We sell it on its own as seasoned ash precisely because it is worth having unblended: every load behaves the same, which matters if you are cooking on it or running a pizza oven.
Oak
- Heat10/10
- Burn time10/10
- Lights easily4/10
- Behaves itself9/10
The most heat per log and the longest burn of anything on the list. Oak is the wood for banking a stove down before bed – a large split oak log on a good ember bed will still be glowing in the morning.
The trade-off is that it is hard work to get going. Oak wants a proper bed of embers underneath it before it will do anything useful, so it is a poor choice for lighting a cold stove. It also takes the longest to season of anything here, often two years rather than one.
In practice the right way to use oak is as part of a mix: something lighter to establish the fire, then oak to hold it.
Beech
- Heat9/10
- Burn time8/10
- Lights easily7/10
- Behaves itself9/10
Beech is close to ash in most respects and slightly better looking in the grate – it burns with a bright, even flame and leaves very little ash behind. Good heat, good burn time, no spitting worth mentioning.
Its one weakness is that it holds water stubbornly and rots quickly if stored badly. Beech that has sat on wet ground under a tarp goes off faster than any other species here, so it is the one that most rewards storing it properly.
Birch
- Heat6/10
- Burn time4/10
- Lights easily10/10
- Behaves itself8/10
Birch is the show wood. It lights almost instantly, burns with a bright lively flame, and the bark is oily enough to catch from a match – which makes birch bark one of the best natural firelighters there is.
What it will not do is last. Birch is a light timber and burns through quickly, so a fire built only of birch needs feeding constantly. Use it to get things going and to lift a fire that has gone sulky, and put something denser on once it is established.
The bark crackles a little as the oils burn off. It is nothing like softwood spitting and is perfectly safe in an open fire, but you will hear it.
Sycamore
- Heat6/10
- Burn time6/10
- Lights easily7/10
- Behaves itself9/10
Nobody’s favourite and nothing wrong with it. Sycamore is a middling wood in every direction: reasonable heat, reasonable burn time, lights well enough, does not spit. It seasons quickly, which is a genuine advantage.
It is abundant across Dorset, so it turns up reliably in our seasoned mixed. If you have ever burned a mixed load and not noticed anything in particular about some of the logs, they were probably sycamore, and that is a compliment of sorts.
So which should you buy?
For almost everybody, a mixed hardwood load is the right buy. You get birch and sycamore to light it, ash and beech for the body of the fire, and oak to hold it overnight – which is exactly how you would use them if you bought them separately.
Buy a single species when you have a specific reason: ash for cooking and pizza ovens where consistency matters, or pure hardwood when you want the densest possible load for overnight burning.
| If you want… | Buy | Full transit |
|---|---|---|
| The best all-round value | Seasoned Mixed | £420 |
| The longest, densest burn | Seasoned Hardwood | £460 |
| Consistency, every load the same | Seasoned Ash | £460 |
| The fastest light from cold | Kiln Dried | £450 |
Dry beats species, every time. A damp load of oak will disappoint you more than a dry load of sycamore ever will. Get the moisture right first and the species question becomes a matter of preference.
Every firewood we sell, what is in it, and the price per cubic metre.